Jane Kenyon

Kenyon died Saturday of leukemia. She and her husband, poet Donald Hall, had both been struggling with cancer for years. Many of their works were inspired by their battles with the disease. Their last book of poems, entitled Constance, is about Hall's surgery and recovery. We replay our 1993 interview with the couple.

Two poets, married to one another, coming to grips with illness and mortality: Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon. Hall's new memoir of life on his New Hampshire farm and his "absorbedness" with writing are the subject of his new book "Life Work" (Beacon Press). Halfway through its completion, Hall was diagnosed with liver cancer; the following surgery and recovery provided rich material for his work and Kenyon's: a new book of poems entitled "Constance" (Graywolf Press).

Hall, who died on Saturday, wrote about farm work and his wife, poet Jane Kenyon, in the 1993 memoir Life Work. He and Kenyon spoke to Fresh Air in 1996, and Hall was interviewed again in '02 and '12.

Poet Donald Hall returns to the show to discuss his new collection of poetry, The Painted Bed, much of it written in mourning for his late wife, poet Jane Kenyon. Hall received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in poetry for his collection, The One Day, and the 1990 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America for Old and New Poems.

Poet Donald Hall. A year ago, his wife, poet Jane Kenyon died of leukemia. There's a new collection of her work, "Otherwise: New & Selected Poems" (Graywolf Press). Hall will read from the book, including the last poems she wrote, and discuss their life together. Hall also has a forthcoming book of poetry, "The Old Life," (Houghton Mifflin) to be published in June.